HIRO III lets you feel what you see on screen (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers in Japan are developing a new touch screen system, the HIRO III, that incorporates a robot hand that could offer a new way of simulating the touching of virtual objects and receiving feedback from them.

Scientists from Gifu University’s Kawasaki and Mouri Laboratory at Gifu in central Japan, say the HIRO III is a "haptic interface robot,” which can transmit realistic sensations of touch to a user’s fingertips. The touch screen uses a 3D display to provide the visual stimulus.

The robot is an arm and hand with five fingers to which the user’s own fingers are strapped. The robotic fingers give the user tactile sensations simulating the textures of surfaces, size of virtual objects and a sense of weight. The system is integrated with a three-dimensional display that includes an image of the user’s hand. The hand on the screen appears to be in the same position as the user’s own hand, which could make the experience seem very realistic.

Each robotic fingertip has fifteen degrees of movement and the arm has six, which allows it to operate in a relatively large space under the screen. The robot’s movements are controlled by fifteen motors running simultaneously.

The device could be used in applications such as controlling robotic arms in factory work, and for simulating procedures for medical diagnosis training. At the moment it is still at the experimental stage and the researchers are concentrating on its potential use in teaching medical students how to carry out tactile screening for breast cancer.

Who doesn’t long for household help at times? Service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks. Research scientists have now presented a new generation of household robots, the ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Developed by researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy, the Smart Hand project has given patient, Robin af Ekenstam (see video) the sense of touch in his new prosthesis ...

Scientists have developed a new ultra-light limb that can mimic the movement in a real hand better than any currently available. This research was presented today at the Institute of Physics conference Sensors and their Applications ...

Recommended for you

It's a safe bet that some of the websites and apps you use collect and subsequently sell your personal data. But how can you know which ones? An EPFL researcher has led the development of a program that can answer that question ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed the first unmanned, fixed-wing aircraft that is capable of traveling both through the air and under the water – transitioning repeatedly between sky and sea. ...

University of Washington engineers have turned tissue paper – similar to toilet tissue – into a new kind of wearable sensor that can detect a pulse, a blink of an eye and other human movement. The sensor is light, flexible ...

A team of researchers led by Northwestern University professor and fuel cell pioneer Sossina Haile has created a new fuel cell offering both exceptional power densities and long-term stability at optimal temperatures, a discovery ...

Previous interactions can affect unrelated future decisions: In a line at a coffee shop, a stranger pays for the coffee of the man behind her, who then pays for the next stranger's coffee. He's had no interaction with other ...

Such robotic gloves could be used during protein & medical research. They would enable scientists to touch the molecule models and to investigate their optimal spatial configuration and or reactivity in hands. This approach is based on the insight, for human is much easier to find spatial conformation or tension by using of visual and haptic feedback - whereas for computer it's very computationally intensive job because of high degree of freedom in motion of complex molecules.

I agree with trekgeek and would like to add that this can become a fully two way system robot to human like a robotic Avatar. Great for hazardous locations and even take away the need for space walks. I also loved the magnetic junctions for great emergency speed launch and disconnect. Well thought out. ALmost makes me wonder if the CHI medicine inspired the design.